A Senate Oversight Committee hearing on federal prisons expected to be contentious was colored by the arrest early Tuesday of two guards for dereliction of duty related to Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide in his Manhattan jail cell.
Just hours before the head of the Bureau of Prisons was slated to be grilled by senators frustrated by the lack of answers surrounding the child sex offender’s death, the Justice Department reaffirmed its stance that Epstein died by suicide and announced the early morning indictment of Tova Noel and Michael Thomas, guards at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
The department unsealed a 20-page indictment alleging the two responsible for checking on Epstein failed to do so then lied “to conceal their failure to complete their duties.”
Both pleaded not guilty.
The arrests came amid questions about how a high-profile prisoner like Epstein was allowed to take his own life and as “Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself” became a viral meme. Last week, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska said “we’re still in the dark about what happened to Epstein” and warned Dr. Kathleen Hawk Sawyer, who took over as director of the Bureau of Prisons after Attorney General William Barr removed her predecessor, to “come prepared to give some substantive answers.”
Hawk Sawyer noted throughout Tuesday’s hearing that she was limited in what she could reveal while investigations by the FBI and DOJ inspector general are ongoing.
The charges leveled by DOJ shed some light on Epstein’s death.
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell early on the morning of Aug. 10 in what was ruled a suicide within days. In late October, New York City’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Barbara Sampson, stood by her conclusion “that the cause of Mr. Epstein’s death was hanging and the manner of death was suicide.”
Authorities charged that Noel and Thomas “repeatedly failed to complete mandated counts of prisoners under their watch” and charged each with one count of conspiring to defraud the United States, which carries a sentence of up to five years behind bars. Noel, 31, a guard at the MCC since 2016, was also charged with five counts of creating false records while Thomas, 41, who has worked there since 2007, was indicted on three counts of falsifying logs. Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years.
Epstein was arrested for allegedly sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York, Florida, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, among other locations, between 2002 and 2005, and perhaps beyond. Prosecutors claimed Epstein built a “vast network of underage victims.”
He was held at the correctional center starting that day and moved to the special housing unit a few days later amid concerns for his safety and risk of suicide.
Epstein apparently attempted to commit suicide two weeks later, and guards — including Thomas — found him on the floor of his cell with a strip of bedsheet around his neck. Epstein was on suicide watch for 24 hours before being moved to psychological observation for about a week. Epstein was then moved back to the special housing unit “at the direction of the MCC’s psychological staff” and “was required to have a cellmate.” Epstein’s cell was only 15 feet from the guard desk.
Epstein signed a new will on Aug. 8 and, although his cellmate was transferred out of his cell “in a routine, pre-arranged transfer” at 8 a.m. on Aug. 9, Epstein was not assigned a new cellmate. Epstein met with his attorneys and was brought back to his cell by Noel shortly before 8 p.m.
DOJ said Noel and Thomas “repeatedly failed” to conduct prisoner checks and didn’t carry out their 30-minute rounds after midnight either. DOJ says they were the only two assigned to the unit and “sat at their desk, browsed the internet, and moved around the common area of the SHU” instead. Video shows two officers briefly visited the common area of the unit, but “no one else entered the SHU, no one conducted any counts or rounds throughout the night, and no one entered the area in which Epstein was housed,” according to the indictment.
DOJ says Noel falsely certified she’d checked on inmates at 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. that night, and Noel and Thomas wrongly recorded conducting inmate counts at midnight, 3 a.m., and 5 a.m.
“As a result of those false reports, the MCC believed prisoners in the SHU were being regularly monitored and accounted for when, in fact, no correctional officer conducted any count or round of the SHU from approximately 10:30PM on August 9 until approximately 6:30AM on August 10, at which time, Noel and Thomas discovered the body of Epstein, who had committed suicide by hanging himself earlier that morning while unobserved,” DOJ said.
Noel and Thomas found Epstein with a noose around his neck while they delivered breakfast, and they set off an alarm around 6:33 a.m. Noel told a supervisor, “Epstein hung himself” and “we did not complete the 3AM nor 5AM rounds.” Thomas admitted, “We messed up” and “we didn’t do any rounds.” Epstein was declared dead at a hospital shortly thereafter.
In August, Barr said, “I have seen nothing that undercuts the finding of the medical examiner that this was a suicide.” Those sentiments were echoed Tuesday by Hawk Sawyer.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham asked the Bureau of Prisons director if she agreed Epstein died by suicide.
“That was the finding of the coroner, sir,” she replied.
When Graham pressed her on whether she had any evidence contradicting the finding, Hawk Sawyer replied, “I do not.”
The jet-setting financier’s friendships with people like former President Bill Clinton, the United Kingdom’s Prince Andrew, and others have come under increased scrutiny following his death, while Epstein’s victims continue fighting for accountability.
“These guards aren’t the only ones who should stand trial — every one of Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators should be spending the rest of their lives behind bars,” Sasse said.
